Microsoft Virtual PC is a non-free (proprietary) software. It isn't supported by Debian. It's probably wiser to use a free SystemVirtualization tool.

DebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owner would know how get the best out of that hardware.

The purpose is not to duplicate the Debian Official Documentation, but to document how to install Debian on some specific hardware.

Xorg Display

If you installed a GUI (Desktop), you will have to reconfigure Xorg, because the display will be too wide and corrupted, like :

That's because the Virtual PC emulation is incomplete ("s3" doesn't support 24bit mode, as explained here. see bug 470408 )

That's easy to fix :

Press Ctrl-Alt-F1, to switch to virtual console.

Login as root.

Then replace "DefaultDepth 24" with "DefaultDepth 16" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf by running :

sed -e 's/^DefaultDepth.*/DefaultDepth 16/' -i /etc/X11/xorg.conf

then restart gdm, with :

invoke-rc.d gdm restart

RandR

xrandr is working

High Resolution

If you need higher resolution (1280x1024), you can use fbdev video driver in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, with vga=794 as kernel parameter (but xrandr doesn't seems to work anymore)

Another solution to get high resolution: Instead of using the fbdev video driver you can simply change the default "S3" driver in section "Device" Identifier "S3 Inc. 86c764/765 [Trio32/64/64V+]" to "vesa" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf - In conjunction with vga=794 as kernel parameter you will get 1280x1024 too (xrandr will still work!)

Networking

The device (or driver) has no link detection. So network-manager will show an unplugged device. Even though it's working ! (known upstream by Gnome as bug #418745).
If you lose Network connection then left click on the nm-applet then click on "Wired Network" :

Debian Testing and Unstable (kernels >= 2.6.19) have "The mouse pointer appears in the center of the screen, but it is unresponsive." which can be solved by passing i8042.noloop=1 to the kernel at boot time (see bug 433815).

Computer Timer

Due to a bug in Virtual PC (KB918461), you need to pass clock=pit as kernel parameter.

Create the VM

Select the type of the hosted OS (Currently, all linux' are considered other).

Allocate some RAM (128Mb is enough for text only. 512Mb is recommended for GUI/Desktop).

Create a new Virtual Hard-disk image (.VHD, in Microsoft's jargon).

Define maximum size and location for the VHD.

Profile created..

Configure the VM to boot from CD

Select the VM, and click on Start, then quickly...

Go to the Virtual machine window, in the menu "CD". Go to "Capture CD Image", then pick the debian cdrom image you have downloaded previously. (FYI, You can enter the VirtualPC's host BIOS by pressing the "DEL" key, at boot time).

You should now reach the Debian CD boot prompt. You can type installgui vesa i8042.noloop=1 clock=pit vga=791 to run the nice graphical installer, or just press Enter for text mode.

After installation, make sure you read the paragraph about S3/Xorg bug.